Entering my freshman year of high school, I met John Bartlett, my baseball coach. He is what I would consider my first mentor, a man who poured into me. He invested in me. He was a follower of Jesus, and a United States Marine. He pushed me to be better, to have integrity, and to work hard. He corrected me and pushed me to be a good man. As a Marine, he saw value in running. Conditioning was a priority in our baseball program. Looking back, I see that it was the method  of “Over Distance” training. For practices, we ran, and ran, and ran, did drills, and ran. His philosophy was that during late innings of a game, other teams would be tired and play sloppy, but we would be fresh and still firing on all cylinders. We were. I was never tired. I said all that to say this. Through him, I learned the value of a coach/player relationship. I trusted him to tell me what to do, to make me better, to teach me. He did more than teach me baseball. He taught me values that carried over into life. He taught me work ethic and integrity on and off the field.    

 

When I was 16 and could drive, I got connected with a friend of my mom’s. He was a professional bodybuilder. He met me at the gym, assessed me, and

quickly saw I was willing to put in work. To this day I still remember the exact workout split he gave me. I can still remember the exercises, the sets, reps and order they were all in and the "why" behind them. It formed what I would consider the foundation of a bodybuilding mentality and training method I would use for the rest of my life.